Air Force, New Mexico U. begin hi-tech partnership
Posted 7/29/2008
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by Eva Blaylock
Air Force Research Laboratory
7/29/2008 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- A collaborative effort here is paving the way for a new center of excellence in New Mexico for the application of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, or FPGAs, in space and defense systems.
Called the FPGA Mission Assurance Center, or FMAC, the project was recently allotted $1.6 million by Congress.
FPGAs are state-of-the-art electronic chips that can be programmed after manufacture to perform a variety of tasks within the framework of different applications, from cell phones to satellites.
Instructors at the new center, formed in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory's Phillips Technology Institute, are training students on the proper application of FPGAs and adapting the commercial devices for use in demanding space and military environments.
The FMAC collaboration includes the AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate, the University of New Mexico, Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, XILINX Corp., and SES Consultants. The majority of the activity is being performed by specialists at the University of New Mexico's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Ultimately, the hope of FMAC officials is to forge the way for rapid, cost-effective development of programmable logic processors to suit user-specified tasks, in space, defense and even commercial applications.
Specialists at the planned center will conduct research and development of FPGAs, spanning programming tools, radiation hardening techniques, reliability, testability, trustworthiness, and reconfiguration and repair strategies, and will help develop guidelines for FPGA applications.
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